In the Applicant's earlier patent applications, Ser. No. 10/023,674, filed on Dec. 18, 2001, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 7,328,266, issued on Feb. 5, 2008, and Ser. No. 10/623,893, filed on Jul. 21, 2003, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 8,108,524, issued on Jan. 31, 2012, the entire contents of which are explicitly incorporated herein by reference, the present Applicants described networks in which communications could be provided from an ISP to a subscriber of the ISP. In the referenced applications, a redirection device was placed in the path of upstream traffic from the subscriber. The redirection device, operating under the control of a consolidating and management device elsewhere in the network, processed upstream data packets to determine when targeted communications to the subscriber were required. In particular examples provided in the applications referenced above, subscribers of an ISP attempting access to an internet service were provided with notification of potential internet service issues. A further application of providing communications to subscribers includes notifying subscribers of potential virus infections and e-mail spamming such as disclosed in the Applicant's co-filed patent application Ser. No. 12/004,634, the entire contents of which are explicitly incorporated herein by reference. A further application of providing communications to subscribers includes notifying subscribers of potential theft of internet service on an unsecured subscriber account, as described in the Applicant's co-filed patent application Ser. No. 12/004,635, the entire contents of which are explicitly incorporated herein by reference
A problem with providing notifications to subscribers through redirected web pages as in the above referenced patent applications, is a tendency for such redirected web pages to have a similar look and feel to web pages that typically lead to virus and Trojan infection. Subscribers may therefore be unlikely to treat the redirected web pages as genuine. In particular, where the redirected web pages contain links to downloadable remedial facilities, as described in the patent applications referenced above, subscribers are unlikely to click through links where the links look like they potentially contain viruses.
What is a required is a system, method and computer readable medium for authenticating notifications and messages provided to subscribers in order to assure the subscriber that the message is, indeed, originating by the ISP.